As the cuts bite, Suffolk's 'virtual council' dream runs into trouble (Guardian)

Radical plans to outsource all town hall services hang in the balance after a revolt by Tory backbenchers unnerved by public hostility to funding cuts Tory-controlled Suffolk's much-vaunted "virtual council" experiment looks like it is grinding to a halt. The council's radical strategy, unveiled last year, controversially promised to cut costs by 30% by outsourcing everything it does to private companies and local social enterprises and charities. But now, after what is seen by some as a "backwoods" Tory councillor revolt, the prosaically named New Strategic Direction (NSD) is in tatters: the leader of the council who introduced the plan has stepped down; his annointed successor was unexpectedly defeated by a putative Stop-The-NSD candidate; and the highly-paid CEO who masterminded NSD finds herself under constant attack from a hostile media, locally and nationally. The jury is still out on whether the changes amount to a u-turn or something less fundamental - a "pause" in the NHS reforms sense - while the council takes stock of the speed and scale of the NSD, and comes up with something more palatable to the public. But what is clear is that this amounts to perhaps the first notable Tory ...Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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